Recapping the weekend in Flyers minor league hockey as the Phantoms and Royals combined for six games. Also a prestigious honor for two young Flyers prospects.
Juniors
Flyers prospects Travis Sanheim and Samuel Morin have been invited to Canada’s World Junior Camp. 29 players were invited with the roster eventually being cut down to 22.
Sanheim has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 29 games (as a defenseman!) for the Calgary Hitmen, just one point shy of his season total last year in 67 games.
Morin has 8 points (2 goals, 6 assists) in 11 games (0.72 PPG) for Rimouski Oceanic after totaling 31 points in 54 games (0.57 PPG) last season.
This is a prestigious honor for these two and a sign of good things to come for the Flyers blue line.
AHL
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms has a busy weekend, playing three games in three days in three different cities.
The Phantoms kicked off the weekend Friday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
This was a game the Phantoms would rather forget. Rob Zepp let in four goals within the first two periods before being replaced by Anthony Stolarz.
Stolarz stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced, but the damage was done as the Phantoms lost 5-1.
Brett Hextall picked up the lone goal for the Phantoms to thwart the shutout.
The Phantoms returned home Saturday to face-off against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in everyone’s favorite game, the teddy bear toss game.
It took until the second period, but the teddy bears came raining down once Hextall scored his second goal in as many nights early in the period.
The Sound Tigers scored just 30 seconds later, before Darroll Powe and the Phantoms regained the lead just over a minute later.
Bridgeport tied the game up in the third and overtime couldn’t decide the game.
The Phantoms lost the shootout 2-1, with Jason Akeson scoring the lone Phantoms goal, and lost the game 3-2.
Zepp once again started this one, stopping making 37 saves, some of which were spectacular, in 67 minutes.
The Phantoms and Sound Tigers went back at it in Bridgeport on Sunday, with the Phantoms prevailing 5-3.
Akeson scored twice and added two assists for four points on the day. Brandon Manning added another goal to his total which is now 6 on the season. Blair Jones also added two assists.
Stolarz started this one, and stopped 34 of the 37 shots he faced.
ECHL
The Reading Royals also had a busy weekend, losing to the Toledo Walleye 6-4 on Thursday, as well as losing to the South Carolina Stingrays 4-2 on Saturday. Fortunately for the Royals, they bounced back with a 2-0 win against the Stingrays on Sunday.
Ryan Gilbert is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia and can be found on Twitter @RiskyBryzness.
